The Wood & Iverson Lumber Company was started in 1898 by William W. Wood and Iver C. Iverson. The company's first shingle mill was located east of Snohomish in an area called French Creek. The company used horses for logging until 1903, when it purchased its first locomotive. In May 1912, after logging out the area around French Creek, the company was relocated to Hobart in King County, and a sawmill was built and logging railroad track laid. Operations at Hobart ceased in the 1940s.

Hobart was located in Maple Valley. Settlers began filing land claims in the area as far back as 1878. The Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad reached Hobart in 1898 with its Maple Valley branch. In 1903, the little community got a post office and was officially named Hobart, reportedly after President William McKinley's vice president, George A. Hobart. Sometime in 1915, Wood & Iverson acquired the Hobart Store. The company had also built a three-story boardinghouse that the locals called "The Hobart" along with a dining room, a cookhouse, a pool room, and a barber shop. It had also started building company houses along the west side of Hobart Road, building 36 over the years.